At 2016 New York City Cannabis Parade, a push for legalizing pot

A giant inflatable joint made its way through down Broadway during the Cannabis Parade.

The message written across the giant inflatable joint making its way down Broadway in Saturday’s pot parade seemed timely: “Obama, deschedule cannabis now!”

With marijuana legal in some form in 24 states and Washington, D.C., the possibility of cannabis being “descheduled” from its federal status as a drug with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse” may be closer than ever. New York appears to be making its own strides away from prohibition. The state launched a medical-marijuana program in January and has to some extent decriminalized the possession of small amounts of pot.

But some parade participants who led the marijuana mascot through lower Manhattan on Saturday have been marching for decades to fully legalize the drug in New York. They may have a long journey ahead.

“We’re not looking at the medical statute as any kind of serious substantive change,” said Noah Potter, an attorney and organizer of the event, who has been attending since the 1990s. “This event has always been about full legalization.”

Known until a few years ago as “Cures Not Wars,” and now as the NYC Cannabis Parade, New York’s annual rally in support of legalization has been held in various forms since the early 1970s. This year, the event culminated in a gathering at Union Square. As blunts and pipes were passed around, speakers attempted to educate the crowd about the Marijuana Taxation and Regulation Act (S. 1747/A. 3089A) that is currently stalled in the state legislature.

“We’ve been doing this for four decades. If we don’t get involved and do the hard work, it’s not going to go anywhere,” said Doug Greene, legislative director of Empire State NORML, the New York chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “Just coming here and listening to me speak and getting high is not going to change anything.”

Some would say the fact that the NYPD did not seem interested in arresting anyone who was getting high at the event was a major shift in and of itself. Although the NYPD cut its marijuana arrests in half last year, 16,590 people were still cuffed for low-level marijuana possession, about 88% of whom were black or Latino.

Efforts to pass a bill that would regulate marijuana like alcohol may be helped by the limitations of the state’s medical-marijuana law, said Troy Smit, the director of Empire State NORML. Under the Compassionate Care Act, just five cannabis companies can operate in the state, and they can only serve New Yorkers suffering from one of 10 severe medical conditions.

“Saying the Compassionate Care Act is bad helps our case,” said Smit. “It leaves out a huge population of patients who just aren’t included in the program. Under a legal, regulated market for responsible adult use, nobody would be left out.”

But some of the law’s biggest critics in the legislature, including Sen. Diane Savino, D-Staten Island, still don’t support full legalization.

With general attitudes towards marijuana evolving—56% of Americans now believe it should be legal, according to an April CBS poll—it is possible that legislators could come around. But even the most optimistic advocates say it is unlikely full legalization will pass in New York state as long as Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in office, and he has announced his intention to run for a third term in 2018.

“There’s very little doubt in my mind that Cuomo’s not going to let anything happen. He’s not going to tolerate any nonsense about full legalization,” said Potter.

Still, after two decades in the movement, Potter is not one to give up. “That just means people are going to have to get around him, past him, over him, whatever’s necessary," he said. "It means creating innovative coalitions to force him backwards.”

Despite the wave of legalization throughout the country and the changes taking place in New York, the conversation about marijuana use here does seem to take place in a relatively small echo chamber.

Outside the police barriers around the event on Saturday, one doctor-in-training said she had no idea that medical marijuana was legal in New York. And while she supported full legalization, the 29-year-old said she was reluctant to offer her name because the topic is controversial.

“I’m not much of a smoker myself, but there’s nothing wrong with it,” said the second-year student at SUNY Upstate Medical University. “I’m all for it."

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